Living the Busy Life by Robin Janney

I had to do some  investigating when I saw that our last post was a late one from myself.  I realized late last night that I hadn't done my post last week, and was surprised to see that CP missed her week as well.  I know from her Facebook posts that she's been busy: graduations and weddings have filled her days as well as formatting her latest work Overcoming Sarah into a proper format for paperback.

I think I needed to come up with 2 sets of 3 for this hand...
didn't have the greatest start, but I've seen worse!

Trying to think back on what I did last week to lose track of time and turns.  And I'm not really sure!  Friday and Sunday night were card night at my in-laws.  A while back, my mother-in-law decided it would be a good idea for the four of us to play cards on Friday night.  Sometimes we play just one round, other times we get in two.  Last weekend we played cards on Sunday night as well since the two of us who work had Monday off.  It's always fun, even when the cards don't go my way.  One night we made homemade ice cream while we were playing cards!  Usually we don't have any snacks at all.

Monday was Memorial Day and my side of the family celebrated as usual by a having a picnic.  This year we were at the Waverly Glen park just over the NY border.  My maternal grandparents are buried in the cemetery that borders the pretty little park.  I was trying to stay out of the sunshine because a medicine I was on carried a sensitivity warning, so I didn't get any pictures of the water fall that graces the park...although I still managed to get a slight sunburn anyway!

Then of course it was back to work on Tuesday.  And really it's kind of a blur.  I know I had a doctor's appointment Thursday afternoon, after which we hit the Toyota dealers to ask about a metal piece we thought had maybe come off our truck (it wasn't ours!) and then to step into Mr. Janney's doctors so we could ask about his stitches.  No one ever told us they were the dissolving kind and so that was another relief.

One of my husband's attic finds; he placed it in my computer area :) I love the
creative ambiance it adds!!

There is a yard sale coming up next Saturday and there've been a few days our focus has been sorting and cleaning and deciding what to keep and what to sell...and there'll be more of that this week.

Mr. Janney also took the opportunity to rearrange the computer room one day while I was at work as well - he needs to take it easy still, only 3 weeks after his surgery, but he's getting antsy.  I forget which night we went up to his parents and helped go through their attic.  Mr. Janney found a few things he's been looking for, although I'm still not sure if he's keeping or selling the stand up pin ball machine in the yard sale.

One evening we were called up to help my mother do a quick cleaning job to make room for a new couch in her living room. I think it was the same day as the doctor's appointment because I remember coming home and my smartphone connected to wifi and I had all these messages from people and a bunch were from my mother!  It was a quick job, but still managed to take up a large portion of the evening due to the conversation that took place!

You'd never know a storm had went
through  minutes before this pic.
Stephen Foster Lake at Mt Pisgah State Park

This weekend my husband and I tried to go swimming at an area pool, but the weather wouldn't cooperate.  I'd barely gotten changed into my bikini when it thundered and the pool closed...we had to wait until 20 minutes after the last thunder before it would reopen.  We hung around for a while, and had been in the pool for maybe five minutes before the next storm made itself known.  This time we took off to find a spot to picnic at while it rained.

Our only visitors; they made a little noise but not much.

We found an empty pavilion and hoped the ones who had reserved it for the day had either already come and gone or were coming later...we got lucky, no one showed up and told us to leave.  We ate in peaceful nature, with a gorgeous view and a few animal visitors.  But the threat of more thunderstorm shut the pool down for the rest of the afternoon so our swimming was over.  Which was frustrating because none of my doctors want me walking for exercise and instead would rather I swim.  Which will be hard to do with this being the only free swimming pool that I know of in our area.  The fact that I can't actually swim aside.  At the least, I can 'walk' in the pool without creating stress on my torn foot tendon.

Today we are just relaxing.  My Janney is playing his GTA 5 and Clash of Clans.  I'm catching up on laundry and computer stuff.  What have you all been up to in these past few summer-like weekends?

Say BOO! by Robin Janney

Nothing good can come from this omen...

It's that time of year again.

Halloween.

Perhaps one of the most controversial holidays in existence.  I say this because of one paragraph I read in the Wikipedia article about this fall holiday.  While I realize Wikipedia is not always a reliable source, I found the article to be absolutely intriguing.

The word Halloween translates as "Holy Evening".  The holiday we have now is a far cry from its origins, first as Samhain, the Celtic festival celebrated from sundown on the 31st to sundown on the 1st.  Samhain directly translates as "November" and marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the dark days - It should come as no surprise that Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend and we switch back to standard time.

This time was marked with moving heard from the higher pastures down to the lower winter pastures, and choosing which animals would be slaughtered for the upcoming winter.  It was a time for bonfires and feasting.  Many times the hearth's of homes were doused previously so they could be rekindled from the new bonfires.  Different places had different customs, which remains true today.  This time of year was believed to be a special time of year when then the fabric between dimensions thinned.  Because of this believe there were also many rituals performed during Samhain.

As early Christianity spread across Europe, they influenced the Celts and began to celebrate All Saint's Day the same time as Samhain.  All Saint's Day was originally May 13th, but was later moved to November 1st.  Whether it was because of the two holy days' similarities or as an effort to "combat" the pagan traditions, no one can agree.  There is even the possibility that the church in Rome ordered the change because the city became over crowded during the feast in the summer, especially with the Roman fever a danger.

Graveyards are spooky no matter what time of year it is!

Trick or treating, bobbing for apples, carving jack-o-lantern's are just a few of today's traditions that have been passed down through the years.  Traditions still vary from place to place.  I remember trying to bob for apples once, I wasn't very good at it!  I was 18 when I went trick or treating for the first (and only) time!  And had my fingers shut in a car door for my trouble!  I've never been toilet papering, but I helped a lawn grow plastic forks once...but that wasn't for Halloween...it was an out of season prank.

It's a time for pumpkin everything and scary stories.  There is a lot of emphasis on the departed.  One thing that has lost emphasis in my corner of the world is the remembering and honoring of the departed.  I mean, I've never been to an All Saint's Day service.  I have been to a funeral at this time of year, as my oldest brother died on Halloween 3 years ago.  When the phone rings at 4:30 in the morning, the news is seldom good.

The reason why I call this a controversial holiday isn't because of the mixed attitudes Christians have toward it.  This is a holiday that no religion can agree on.  Some Jews won't celebrate it because it is in violation of a commandment to not participate in Gentile (non-Jew) customs.  Islam is just as split, lumping Halloween in the same category as Christmas and Easter.  Some Neopagans and Wiccans don't participate in the secular version of the holiday, preferring to stick to Samhain traditions.

I used to fall on the 'Halloween is evil and shouldn't be acknowledged' side of the Christian argument.   I wouldn't even participate in church held evangelizing outreaches on the night of trick or treating. Then I switched to the camp of 'Let's shine our light in the darkness.'  Partly because of subtle pressure from the pulpit.  Partly because the pulpit was making sense.  If there's darkness, the light will will push it back.  But since leaving the church, my mind has changed on a lot of issues.  I no longer regard God as this scary judge sitting in heaven taking notes on everything I do.  Life is too short to live in fear that dressing up as a princess or ghost will be held against you after your death.  I myself doubt it would even register on a list of things to be judged.

In many ways, I have to agree with the author of this blog post on the subject.  It's not about whether or not we celebrate Halloween, but how we treat people.  Dressing up as that princess or ghost won't damage a person's faith anymore than dressing as a telephone booth damages his daughter's faith.  The truth is, all the holiday's have become secularized and commercialized to the point it's easy to participate in without subscribing to the beliefs that started it.

Halloween isn't the same without waiting for the Great Pumpkin!

I might even buy some candy and answer the door on Sunday when our community holds trick or treating.  Because it's fun.  I saw trick or treaters in town as I returned my library books, and wished I had kids so that I could have joined them.  Or course, that's still a few days away and I am just as likely to buy a pumpkin and try to cook it down in my slow cooker just to see if I can do it.  Because I love the smell of a pumpkin being cooked down to be used in pies and bread later for Thanksgiving.  Depending on how I'm feeling, because right now this chick just wants some chicken soup and a warm blanket.  I'm settling for warm ginger ale and a sweater until I sign off here.

Enjoy your Halloween, no matter how you chose to celebrate it.  Be safe and have fun.

Do you have any favorite Halloween memories you'd like to share?